First, you must define the material for which you wish to determine the dislocation etch pit density (assuming that you are looking for dislocation density and not other defects such as inclusions or second phases). Second, do a quick Google search for (a) the material of interest, (b) dislocation etch pit density and (c) crystallographic orientation(s) of interest, if any. You will be inundated with references to suitable etching solutions in published papers, books and tutorials to act as a starting point for a complete answer to your question. You might then refine your question for further help. It would require volumes of text to fully answer your question here.
If your interest is in compound semiconductor single crystals such as GaAs you should read SEMI Standard M83-112 - available from several sources on line.
Thank you for drawing my attention to the earlier discussions, Volker; they pre-date my RG membership and I would not have been aware of this previous airing of the subject without your input. I am working through the thread and agree with the answers I have read so far. It's all been said, I think, particularly for GaAs.
However, I do have one comment on the earlier thread: What on earth does it mean to "like" or "dislike" a discussion? (A spillover from chit-chatting?). I would prefer the choice to be whether I find the discussion interesting (or useful), or not.
Dear Professors, I am working in slow evaporation solution growth method. These crystals are soluble in water. I have seen through optical microscope and taken few pictures. There was a formula to calculate EPD for a square cm.
You will find a complete description of the method of calculating dislocation etch pit density for GaAs based on counting the number of pits seen in each cell of an array of squares scribed on a reticle in the eyepiece of a low power (50X, typical) in SEMI Standard M83-112. Specifics are also given for the etching procedure for various crystallographic planes for the case of GaAs. The calculation method is the same for other materials.
I hope you find this of use
Clarification: I intended to write "low power (50x typical) microscope". My aplolgies
The etch pit density (EPD) can be calculated by the follwing equation
EPD=No of etch pits/ Area
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